Stars’ Glen Gulutzan reveals plan to fix team’s struggles ahead of NHL playoffs originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Dallas Stars host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday at American Airlines Center. At the pregame news conference, head coach Glen Gulutzan revealed what the plan could be going forward if the Texas team does not return to its best form.
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Gulutzan admitted that he has not liked what he has seen from the group for some time and noted that in those cases, the right move is to mix things up.
“I’m gonna put in another D just to get him in there. I haven’t liked, actually, I haven’t liked probably our whole group for a little bit now,” he said Thursday.
“So I’m just gonna mix things up, 11 and 7. I didn’t find any line combinations that I thought were really, really effective. So it allows me to mix and match some pieces there and see what we can find. So when you’re not playing as well as you need to, you gotta mix things up. So that’s what we’re gonna do,” he added.
Dallas hosts Winnipeg on Thursday, then Colorado on Saturday in high-stakes matchup
Gulutzan acknowledged that the team is tired but did not use it as an excuse for the level the Stars have shown over the past two weeks.
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“We do need some rest, there’s no question about it, too, but we do need some wins. We do need to start playing better,” he said.
“It’s long enough that we haven’t played well, and that spreads through the whole group. So, you’re not always gonna just play well and win, so we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about we need to start playing a little bit better hockey than we’ve played in the last two weeks.”
Following the game against the Jets, the Stars will host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, April 4, in a high-stakes matchup.
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